Most of Fort Totten was built recently: 9% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1975. 1 place in town is on the National Register, among them a historic district with 17 buildings. Below: 2 old photos and papers, maps from 1928 on, and the census since 1990.
Founding year: the first Fort Totten post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).
History grade
What drives Fort Totten’s History grade
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, Fort Totten is more historic than 62% of U.S. towns. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its age pulls it down.
B
HistoryA character grade: shown, never part of Fort Totten’s overall grade.
North Dakota towns list about as much on the Register as the country (a typical North Dakota town has 2.8 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so Fort Totten’s 164 sits above most of its state (99% of North Dakota towns have fewer) while its 17 historic buildings outnumber those of 79% of U.S. towns.
How sure. Graded on any two of the three inputs instead, the letter would range from C to A−. The pre-1940 share is a Census survey estimate (±13.3 points). The founding year is the first post office, not a stated founding date.
Founding year: the first post office (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →
What stands out about Fort Totten’s past
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Fort Totten yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Fort Totten is a census-designated place (CDP) in Benson County, North Dakota, United States. The population was 1,160 at the 2020 census. Fort Totten is located within the Spirit Lake Reservation and is the site of tribal headquarters. The reservation has a total population estimated at 6,000. Although not formally incorporated as a city, Fort Totten has the largest population of any community in Benson County.
Its first post office opened in 1868. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 1,243 to 1,160 (-7%).
Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.
Timeline
Fort Totten, 1868 to 1928
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
The Fort Totten post office opened in 1868, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
How does Fort Totten rank for history?
Fort Totten is more historic than 62% of U.S. towns. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
What is on the National Register in Fort Totten?
One place: the Fort Totten State Historic Site (listed 1971).
How old are the homes in Fort Totten?
9% of Fort Totten’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate, ±13.3 points), against a typical 7.2% for a North Dakota town; the median home was built in 1975.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
From Wikimedia Commons (1), the Library of Congress (3), the National Register of Historic Places (1), U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
2021
2021
